A modern wind turbine has at least a tower and a nacelle, which is supported by the tower. During maintenance procedures and/or initial commissioning of the turbine, a technician may need to gain access to the interior of the tower and/or nacelle. To ensure a safe and effective work environment for the technician, an internal lighting system is typically installed in the wind turbine. Moreover, an on/off switch is generally placed in a lower portion of the tower. Placing the switch in the lower portion of the tower (e.g., near an access door of the tower) facilitates switching internal lights on/off when entering/exiting the wind turbine. Some wind turbines may have additional access ports through which a technician may gain access to the inside of the wind turbine. For example, if the wind turbine is located off-shore, technicians may use a helicopter to reach the wind turbine and access the inside of the wind turbine through an access port in the nacelle rather than through an access door in the tower. Therefore, in addition to providing an on/off light switch at the lower portion of the tower, an off/off light switch may be placed in the nacelle.
However, a light switch in the nacelle of a wind turbine is located quite distant (e.g., about 100 to 150 meters in some cases) from the light switch at the bottom of the tower. Therefore, such a configuration of multiple light switches uses substantially more electrical cabling than a single switch configuration. Moreover, when installing a wind park with numerous wind turbines, the amount of cabling needed for the internal lighting system in a single turbine must be multiplied by the number of turbines in the wind park, leading to substantial material and labor costs. Therefore, a better lighting control solution is needed for wind turbines in which multiple light switches are used.